The Titans and the Tiger
by Hasty
Summary: Tracer's settling in at Titan's Tower. He finds out that Suzy has been kidnapped by Blackfire and her new alien henchman. The Titans must stop Blackfire and save Suzy.
1. Default Chapter

A few years can really change someone. A tow- headed little boy, stuffed tiger in tow, once terrorized his whole neighborhood. At fifteen, he was an honor student, had a steady girlfriend and had a ton of friends. And now things had to change again.

"Mom," Calvin insisted, "We don't really have to leave, do we?"

"Yes, we do," she replied. "I know how much you like it here, but we have to move to Jump City."

Calvin gave in, eventually, but unknown to his parents, he packed one thing that they thought he'd gotten rid of years ago: Hobbes, his stuffed tiger.

-

_It figures that the worst day of my life is the first day of attending a new school, _Calvin thought grumpily. He'd gotten punched by three people and girls kept following him around. The only person he knew at all was Susie Derkins, his old neighbor. She'd moved to Jump City too, since their fathers worked for the same company. But they didn't have any of the same classes, so he only saw her at lunch, which was when the trouble began.

-

"Head him off," Robin roared into his communicator. The rest of the Teen Titans tried, but Cinder Block kept going, right into the local high school's cafeteria.

-

Calvin saw the wall cave in and realized that Susie's table was right in the monster's path. He ran toward Susie, but time seemed to slow down. Rage burbled up inside of him. He lunged forward, and an orange light flew out from his hands.


	2. Hobbes to the rescue

The Titans took advantage of Cinder Block's distraction to attack. Cinder Block went down in a crash of bricks and stayed down.

Beast Boy saw it first. It was standing over Cinder Block, regarding him through green eyes. He yelled, "Guys, look, it's a tiger." The others turned around. "Hobbes?" Calvin asked hesitantly. The tiger sprang off Cinder Block and padded toward Calvin. He pushed his head under Calvin's hand. He almost purred as Calvin hugged him.

"Is that yours?" Robin asked. Calvin jumped, startled. Once he'd seen Hobbes, everything else had faded into the background. He replied, "Hobbes's himself. He's my pal."

"Robin," Raven called, "I think Cinder Block's starting to wake up!"

Robin sighed. "Look, could you come to the Tower after school? We've got to get Cinder Block back to jail."

Calvin grinned. "I'll be there."

"Great," Robin said.

"Oh wait," Calvin called, grinning sheepishly. "Can you guys take Hobbes?"

-

"Robin, this is really dangerous," Raven warned. "I really don't think Calvin is Titan material, even with a supernatural pet."

Beast Boy chimed in, "Yeah. Remember Terra? And the time you made Gizmo an honorary Titan?"

"Who said I'm a pet?" a voice growled from the floor. Five pairs of eyes fixed on Hobbes. "No way," Beast Boy said in disbelief. "Did you just talk?"

"Yep," Hobbes said. "Would you like to see me tap dance, too?


	3. Blackfire's new plan

"Interesting," Blackfire commented, watching Cinder Block's defeat on her screen. "Do you know him, Wormy? The documentation I've found says he's from your town."

The blobby alien clicked its tentacles together and tapped the computer near it, while Blackfire tried to stifle a sigh.

The problem with long lived aliens, she'd found, was that as they aged, they tended to need reminders. In Wormwood's case, this meant that the older alien needed several small digital devices, each containing enough data for a small library. The alien finally found the files it was looking for and sent them over to Blackfire's screen. They were snapshots from a yearbook.

The first picture was of a blond boy who was sticking his tongue out at the camera, and the second was of a brunette girl. Both were about eight in those pictures. The other two pictures showed the children as they would look at fifteen. Blackfire read out the names under the pictures, "Suzy Derkins and Calvin Watterson. Hmm, this could be interesting." Even though she'd come to Earth to get her revenge on Starfire, playing with these two kids might be fun.

-

Hobbes perked up, sensing that Calvin was approaching the Tower. All of the Titans had left to do various things, except for Raven who was still in the lobby, reading a book. He got ready to pounce.

Calvin blinked up at the giant tower shaped like a T. This must have been the Tower he'd been told to come to. He cautiously opened the door, and then rolled out of the way when Hobbes came shooting out of it. Unfortunately for Calvin, Hobbes switched direction and landed squarely on him.


	4. Calvin's power

**Disclaimer: I own nothing!**

The two started wrestling and eventually they ended up rolling to a halt at Robin's feet. "Need some help?" Robin asked, grinning. "Naw, I can handle it," Calvin said, trying to squirm out from under Hobbes. Hobbes leapt off and smirked at the two boys.

Calvin scrambled to his feet. "I forgot to introduce myself earlier. I'm Calvin." "I know," Robin replied, "Cy did a little research on you. I'm Robin." He led Calvin behind the Tower, where the obstacle course was located, introducing him to the other Titans.

"So I have to get through this course and then I can be a Titan?" Calvin asked. Robin agreed, "Yep." Hobbes marched over to the course and planted himself at the starting line. "I'm running too," he growled. None of the Titans protested, so he and Calvin ran the obstacle course together.

_I need a weapon,_ Calvin thought. _I can dodge this stuff easily, but I need to do more than just dodge. _He thought frantically, and the first thing that came to mind was Spiff's ray gun. He could feel it in his hands. He pressed the trigger and found that it worked. _Perfect, _he thought. _I wonder if I could make a jetpack?_

"I want that jetpack," Cy boomed. Robin looked up. Calvin had somehow gotten a jetpack and was swooping between the many obstacles, firing a laser gun. Hobbes was jumping around from obstacle to obstacle and both of them were grinning from ear to ear. Calvin landed at the finish line and Hobbes made a perfect three point landing right next to him.

"Well?" Calvin said. Cyborg grinned, Starfire danced around, and even Beast Boy and Robin were grinning. "Okay, okay," Raven said, relenting. "He can join." Calvin's grin grew even wider. Hobbes's grin suddenly disappeared. "Calvin, what are we going to tell your parents?" he asked. Calvin groaned. "I completely forgot!"

"You have parents?" Cyborg asked. "Yeah," Calvin said, conscious of a sudden chill in the air. "What's the matter with that?"


	5. The new Titan

**Author's Note:**

**I don't own Calvin and Hobbes or the Teen Titans!**

"See," Cyborg explained, "None of us really have parents. Star's parents live on her home planet, Robin was raised by a guardian, my parents gave me up for dead, and as for Rae and B.B.."

"I prefer not to talk about it." Raven interrupted. Beast Boy just glared at Cyborg. "Right," Cyborg muttered.

"I should probably go home anyway," Calvin said. "I have some things to pick up, and like you said, I should let my Mom and Dad know about this." Hobbes shook his head, but said nothing. Cyborg led the two off to the T-Car.

Calvin pointed out a small house and the two drove up to it. He knocked, but no answer came, so he opened the door with his key. "Looks like Mom and Dad aren't home yet," he explained to Cyborg. "I can go up to my room and pick up the stuff I need right now."

The room was filled with boxes. Calvin picked out four of them and a small duffel bag, keeping the two smallest ones, and giving the other two to Cyborg. "That's all you're taking?" he asked Calvin. "It's all I need," Calvin replied. Hobbes came up from the landing, where he'd been keeping watch and whispered something to Calvin. "The parents are home," Calvin said, "C'mon, I bet they'd love to meet you."

Back at the Tower, Robin and Beastboy were playing video games, Raven was reading, and Starfire was cooking some Tamaranian food. All of them were trying very hard to pretend that they weren't just hanging around to see if Calvin would come back. Finally they heard Cyborg's heavy tread, and all of them rushed to the door. "How'd it go?" Robin asked. Calvin snarled, "I don't want to talk about it." He pushed past Starfire and Beast Boy pointed to the room that the Titans had cleared out for him earlier. He stomped into the room and slammed the door.

"What was _that _about?" Raven demanded. Cyborg sighed. "His parents can't see Hobbes at all. They yelled at _me_ for encouraging their son in his 'delusions'. Then they threatened to send him to a hospital." Robin winced. "Let's leave him alone for tonight. He might feel better tomorrow."

The most important item a superhero has is his or her costume. He sorted through the clothes he'd brought, settling on a pair of black pants paired with a red shirt with a black line in the shape of a T. For boots, he added thejetpowered boots he'dconjured up the day before.

Then he added the final touch, an old red bandanna with two eye holes. Once he'd used it as a mask for playing Calvinball.

Hobbes shoved a gray box under Calvin's nose. "This is for you," he said. Calvin opened it and took out a necklace with seven charms dangling from it. "What is it?" He asked, examining the necklace. Hobbes sighed. "I was told to give this to you when you were old enough to appreciate it. That is all I can say."

"Feeling better, Cal?" Cyborg asked whenthe two came into thekitchen."Much better," Calvin admitted. "And by the way, it's Tracer, now." Cyborg grinned. "Welcome to the team, Tracer."


	6. Unhappy reunions

**Still don't own Calvin and Hobbes or the Teen Titans. For entirely arbitrary reasons Calvin now goes by Tracer. (Becuase Spiff sounds like a car wax and Stupendous Boy just sounds stupid)**_  
_

_  
Beep-bebeep-beep!_

Tracer rolled over. It was the end of a long day of training, and every muscle in his body ached. Sparring lessons with Robin, physical training with Cyborg and Beast Boy, and flying lessons with Starfire and Raven had all taken a toll on his body. He didn't want to answer the phone, but he was a little curious as to why someone would be calling at this time of night. Finally curiousity won out and he answered the phone.

"Hello? Hi Mr. Derkins. What?"

He bolted upright, shook Hobbes awake and then decided to take this on his own. Suzy was _his _girlfriend, anyway. Unfortunately, he woke up the other Titans while he was trying to figure out Cyborg's security code-and set off the alarms. Starfire almost incinerated him with one of her starbolts.

"There had better be a really good explanation for this," Raven said, crossing her arms and shooting a death glare at him. Tracer turned a little red but finally managed to stutter out,"Suzy's been kidnapped." "And Suzy is?" Beast Boy asked, grumpily. "She's, ah, my girlfriend, kind of."Tracer stuttered, turning even redder. The alerts went off, and Robin grabbed Tracer's arm. "There's no time. We'll look for her later. Someone's tearing up downtown."

Tracer, Starfire, Raven and Beastboy flew ahead, with Hobbes clinging to Tracer's back. Robin and Cyborg were slightly behind in their vehicles when they came to the smoking heap that had once been Jump City's mall.

A mocking female voice called out from a floating golden disc, "Hello, little sister. It's been a while." Starfire stopped. "Blackfire!" The dark haired Tamaranian appeared above the disc. "Yep, it's me. And I brought along some old friends of Calvin's." She hauled up Suzy and an alien appeared beside the two girls. "Hello Calvin," the tentacled alien said. "Remember me?"

Tracer put a hand over his eyes. "Ms. Wormwood?" he groaned. Hobbes jumped to the ground, morphing into his regular tiger form. Beastboy landed next to him. "You guys know her?" he asked. "Yeah," Hobbes replied. "She was Tracer's first grade teacher. He always maintained that she was an alien. Until now, I never would have believed it." Blackfire chose that moment to start blasting.

Hobbes leapt up and turned into a shield, Beast Boy turned into a bat and Starfire and Raven used their powers to shield themselves. Wormwood took out a ray gun and started shooting. When Robin and Cyborg joined the battle it looked like the two aliens would lose.

"Now," Blackfire told Wormwood. "Get that cable!" Wormwood produced it, and Blackfire threw it at Starfire. It wrapped around the red heads arms and immobilized her. Blackfire activated it, and if all had gone as it was supposed to, Blackfire would have switched into Starfire's body. But she didn't count on Suzy. The human elbowed her aside and grabbed the cable out of her hands. Suzy and Starfire screamed and Starfire sank to the ground.


	7. Change in Perception

**Okay disclaimer and response time. Okay, first of all I don't own any of the characters in this story. **

**HVK: Since Calvin had such an active imagination, I figured he could use it as a power. Your concept is good too, though. And the costume- well I just sort of dreamed it up**

**-Wormwood as an alien? Well it does kind of make sense. Thanks to all my kind reviewers. This chapter ends the first arc of the story.**

Raven floated over to Starfire, but Tracer stood stock still. The sword charm in the necklace gleamed and he launched himself straight at Blackfire. Blackfire threw a bolt at him, but it didn't seem to have any effect. Wormwood shot at him, but he deflected it by turning his gloves into metal and shielding his face with them. He took out the ray gun and shot the alien. It dropped to the ground stunned.

"Starfire, are you all right? Raven asked, shaking her friend. "Who are you?" Suzy asked. "I'm not Starfire! I'm Suzy Derkins!" Raven swore. Apparently Suzy and Starfire had switched bodies, so Suzy had all of Star's powers. At least she could help a little with this problem. "Suzy, calm down," she said. "I'll help you. Think of something that makes you happy.."

Tracer and Blackfire battled it out. Hobbes and Beast Boy were occupied with Wormwood and Robin and Cyborg were trying to get at Blackfire from the ground. Tracer finally reached Blackfire. He put his hands around her neck and tightened his grip.

Raven saw what Tracer was up to. "Azerath, Metrion, Zinthos," she called out. The spell hit him, but had no effect. Starfire, in Suzy's body was doing her best to get Tracer to stop choking her sister, but Suzy's body didn't have the strength that she was used to. The two girls were of different heights, adding to Starfire's difficulty.

Suzy thought frantically, _think happy thoughts, think happy thoughts. _Finally she managed to float a few feet above the ground. "Now what?" she called to Raven. "Get angry!" Raven yelled back. Angry was fine, she could do that. This guy wasn't Calvin, and she wanted the kind and somewhat flaky Calvin back, the Calvin she grew up with. She felt her hands warm up and realized they were glowing green.

She fired at Calvin, but her aim was off. She hit the disk that the three were standing on instead. The disc spun out of control and hit the ground, and the occupants were jolted apart. Blackfire slumped to the ground, unconscious. Starfire gave a sigh of relief and Tracer rubbed his eyes. "What happened?" he asked, noticing the unconcious Blackfire and the weird way his teammates were looking at him.

Later that night, Tracer and Hobbes sat on the rooftop. Hobbes was wrapped in his own thoughts and Tracer was uncharateristically silent. The door opened and Robin came onto the roof. "How's Blackfire?" Tracer asked. "She's fine, no thanks toyou," Robin snarled. "What were you thinking?"

"I wasn't, " Tracer admitted.

"From now on," Robin stated fiercely, "You're going to be meditating with Raven. If you ever get out of control like that again, you're off the team. Understand?"

Tracer nodded sadly.

"And by the way," Robin added. "We switched Suzy and Starfire back. Suzy wants to talk with you."

"I'll be right down," Tracer grinned. "Hobbes, are you coming?"

"In a minute," Hobbes replied.

As the two Titans left, Hobbes thought_, We are running out of time_._ He'll have to learn more, get more powerful. I hope we have enough time left._

A young black haired womanwith a strange necklace, jumped down from her hiding place. Not that it mattered. Few people saw herfor who she really was. Blackfire would have been one of those few- if she had died. ButHobbes would have seenright through her, and she didn't want that. She'd had ahard enough time finding her youngest brother, without interference from him_. I'll keep your secret for now, little brother_, she thought, as she made her way back to her home.Although Death was as loyal to her siblings as the rest of the Endless, she also respected her brother's wishes. Unlike Dream and Delerium, Death had simply accepted his wishes when he left. She would not force him to return.

Slade's senses were still reeling. He couldn't believe it_. After all this time, he dares to come back!And as a Titan too! _he thought, still numb with rage. His lips curled up intoa smirk_. But on the other hand, this doesn't mean I have a problem. I can simply destroy him and then destroy his friends_.That was definitely a better plan. But he had to strike fast, or his other half would end up destroying_ him_.

Tracer slept quietly, unaware of all these things. Hobbes was awake, trying to remember the spell that would ensure his master's continued survival.

_Once, there were seven siblings called the Endless. They cannot die as we do, but they can change.__Three brothers, three sisters and one who was neither, and each had their own realm. The youngest brother became discontented with his lot, as the centuries wore on. One day, he abandoned his realm. His younger sisters wept, and his older brother raged, but he still left. For several centuries, he wandered the human realm, and watched them from afar, pleased at what was happening._


	8. New powers, new problems

**I don't own Calvin and Hobbes or the Teen Titans. The other characters are Neil Gaiman's. ****Erosgirl- Basically Slade and Calvin/Tracer are two halves of the same person. It's kind of like when Calvin used the Duplicator to give his good side a physical form, only without a mechanical intervention. And as for Death- she'll show up later.**

**Credit goes to NosMercenary for Hobbes's attack.**

"Try it again," Hobbes told Tracer, slicing an apple into two halves. "Okay," Tracer replied. "_Deua halvem unitad!"_

The apple reformed, perfectly whole. "No magic at the breakfast table!" Robin yelled. Beast Boy picked the apple up and ate it. Robin stared in disbelief. "It won't hurt him," Hobbes reassured the two.

Spell casting, scrying, reading sorcerous books.. the new training was going better than Hobbes could have believed. But he still worried that it wasn't enough. At least Tracer had managed to master the most important spell.

He sat by as Raven, Starfire, and Tracer meditated. The girls sat quietly, and Tracer had taken off his necklace and was running it through his fingers. The alarm went off, startling everybody.

"Who is it this time?" Raven demanded. "It's Slade," Robin said icily. "What's a Slade?" Tracer asked. "Bad guy," Cyborg explained "Really awful bad guy. We've been fighting him for years." "Oh," Tracer replied. Hobbes fought down feelings of dread. Why was he feeling this way? Tracer had fought aliens, helped the Titans in a skirmish with Mumbo, and even helped take out Dr. Light. But he felt that Slade was different.

The Titans raced off to Slade's last known location. As soon as they got there, Hobbes realized why he'd been feeling such dread. Even from here, he could feel Slade's aura. It was colder than Tracer's but fundamentally the same. "Hello, Titans," Slade smiled. "I see you've met my other half. Nice to see you again, Calvin."

Tracer's first thought was, _Why does every darn supervillian know my name? First Blackfire, now this Slade guy. I might as well go around wearing a nametag. _The next thought that arrived was,_ just what does he mean by that "other half crack? _

Slade lunged toward Tracer, ignoring the other five Titans. Tracer dodged and fired his ray gun. Beast Boy and Hobbes looked at each other and nodded. Beast Boy shifted into tiger form and they pounced at the same time. Slade dodged them. They switched directions and tried another rush. Raven screamed spells, Starfire hurled starbolts, and Cyborg hurled Robin at Slade. Nothing they did could shift Slade's direction.

Finally Slade reached Tracer. "Now," Hobbes yelled, "Use the spell I taught you." Tracer smiled, and grabbed Slade's wrist. "_Deua solus halveum, unitad!"_

As he intoned the words of the spell, he felt Slade's grip weaken.

The other Titans saw Slade disappear and his armor fell to the ground. Tracer fell unconcious and Cyborg picked him up. Hobbes breathed out a sigh of relief. His master was safe atlast.

"Hobbes?" Robin asked. "Yeah," Hobbes replied. "What did Slade mean when he called Tracer his other 'half?'" Robin asked in an accusing tone. They were heading back to the T-Car in a group. Cyborg had Tracer slung over his shoulder and Starfire and Raven were making sure that he didn't drop their ill teammate.

"He means that my youngest brother is finally restored to his fullpowers," a woman's voice said. She walked out of the darkness. Her physical appearance was that of a young woman, in clothes that made Raven look like a wannabe Goth.

Hobbes trembled. "Lady Death," he finally said,"How wonderful to meet you again." "It's been a while, Robert Gatling," she agreed. "I haven't seen you since the sixteenth century."

Beast Boy was the only one of the Titans crazy enough, or stupid enough to try to contradict them. "You can't be Death," he said. "Why not?" Death inquired, amused. "You're not a skeleton, you don't have a scythe, and you don't have a big black robe on." he pointed out. She snapped her fingers, and changed her appearance. Beast Boy turned into a mouse and hid inside Raven's cape. "Happy now?" Death asked, changing back to her normal form. Beast Boy gave a squeak that probably meant yes.


End file.
